Veteran’s Story: Wrestling to National Champion

November 15th, 2011 Geno

Army, Navy, Marines: it’s tough enough to make it in one branch of the military — but Ron Zuccaro succeeded in all three, wrestled professionally, overcame a devastating injury to come back and win a wrestling championship, and is one of the most engaging patriots you’ll ever meet. This veteran has enough strange and interesting tales to fill more than one lifetime, and an amazing awareness of God’s grace, all packed in his new book Heaven, Iron and I: The Ron Martinelli Story (Tribute House Publishing).

Ron Martinelli was his name as a professional wrestler in the 1970s; his story recounts the early days of professional wrestling with surprising humor and insight. At the peak of his career, his legs were crushed in a freak accident and he was told he’d never walk again. His faith, his family and his love for his country spurred Zuccaro to literally stand up and fight: he did walk again, and won the 1980 heavyweight world title in wrestling. These accomplishments in civilian life were bracketed by extraordinary service in not one, but three, branches of the U.S. Military. He saw action in Vietnam that would prove to have a lasting, and surprisingly positive, influence on the rest of his life. Honorable service during a difficult time for our country brought Zuccaro a unique and moving sense of what it is to be a veteran of the United States Armed Forces.

Learning to walk again after his accident, Zuccaro was troubled by vivid flashbacks to the chaos and danger of his time in Vietnam. It was these recollections, plus his remarkable determination to recover, that helped him uncover God’s grace at work in his own life; his dramatic re-telling of this time in his life makes Heaven, Iron and I: The Ron Martinelli Story a must-read for Christians, veterans and patriots. Zuccaro says his book is “a tribute to my buddies who made the ultimate sacrifice, and shows what war is really like. If you yourself have problems, you can overcome them, you can achieve your goals through the grace of God.” In honor of his fallen friends, Zuccaro now works tirelessly to promote and encourage veterans and veterans’ organizations, in particular the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), American Legion, Marine Corps League and Disabled American Veterans.

Zuccaro’s story is more than inspiring. It’s filled with powerful anecdotes about his time in Vietnam and seasoned with humorous tales of his antics in the early days of professional wrestling, making it a book that critics find impossible to put down. All together, Heaven, Iron and I: The Ron Martinelli Story is a truly great story about a patriot of the first order, a patriot who shows the way for others to achieve, as he did, against all odds.